Impact of the presence and type of cardiovascular disease on the risk of mortality in type 2 diabetic patients: The DIABET-IC trial

Introduction

All-cause mortality and cardiovascular mortality (CVM) risk can be very high in adults with type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM2) with previous cardiovascular disease (CVD). Our objective was to determine this risk among the different clinical spectrum of CVD.

Material and methods

The DIABET-IC trial is a multicenter, prospective, observational, and analytical study. Consecutive subjects with DM2 attending our outpatients’ clinics were recruited. Data on clinical features, lab test results, and echocardiographic measures were collected.

Patients were categorized depending on the presence and type of CVD: heart failure (HF), coronary artery disease (CAD), cerebrovascular disease (CVD) and peripheral artery disease (PAD).

All-cause mortality and CVM were the dependent variables analyzed. Mortality rate was expressed as deaths per 1000 patients-year. Cox proportional hazards regressions models were used to establish the mortality risk associated with every type of CVD.

Results

We studied a total of 1246 patients (mean age, 6.3 (SD, 9.9) years; 31.6%, female) with an initial prevalence of CVD of 59.3%. A total of 122 deaths (46 due to CVD) occurred at the 2.6-year follow-up. All-cause and MCV rates associated with the presence of PAD (85.6/1000 and 33.6/1000, respectively) and HF (72.9/1000 and 28.7/1000 respectively) were the most elevated of all.

In multivariate analysis, HF increased all-cause mortality risk (HR, 1.63; CI 95% 1.03–2.58; P = .037) and the risk of CVM (HR, 3.41; 95% CI, 1.68–6.93; P = .001).

Conclusions

Mortality among DM2 patients is highly increased in the presence of HF and PAD. This justifies the screening of these conditions to intensify therapeutic strategies.